Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella (/ˌkɒljəˈmɛlə/; 4 – c. 70 AD) is the most important writer on agriculture of the Roman empire. Little is known of his life. He was probably born in Gades, Hispania Baetica (modern Cádiz), possibly of Roman parents. After a career in the army (he was tribune in Syria in 35), he took up farming. His Res rustica in twelve volumes has been completely preserved and forms an important source on Roman agriculture, together with the works of Cato the Elder and Varro, both of which he occasionally cites. A smaller book on trees, De arboribus, is usually attributed to him.

Columella used many sources no longer extant, to which he is one of the few references; these include Aulus Cornelius Celsus, the Carthaginian writer Mago, Tremellius Scrofa, and many Greek sources. His uncle Marcus Columella, "a clever man and an exceptional farmer" (VII.2.30), had conducted experiments in sheep breeding, crossing colourful wild rams, introduced from Africa for gladiatorial games, with domestic sheep,[1] and may have influenced his nephew's interests. Columella owned farms in Italy; he refers specifically to estates at Ardea, Carseoli, and Alba,[2] and speaks repeatedly of his own practical experience in agriculture.

9: wild animals: enclosures for wild animals, bee-keeping, production of honey and wax

10: gardens

personnel management

calendars

household management

Book 10 is written entirely in dactylichexameter verse, in imitation of, or homage to, Virgil. It may initially have been intended to be the concluding volume, books 11 and 12 being perhaps an addition to the original scheme.[5]

A complete but anonymous translation into English was published by Millar in 1745.[6] Excerpts had previously been translated by Bradley.[7]

The short work De arboribus, "On Trees", is in manuscripts and early editions of Columella placed as book 3 of Res rustica.[8] However it is clear from the opening sentences that it is part of a separate (and earlier?) work. As the anonymous translator of the Millar edition notes (p. 571), there is in De arboribus no mention of the Publius Silvinus to whom the Res rustica is addressed.[6] A recent critical edition of the Latin text of the Res Rustica of Columella includes it, but as incerti auctoris, by an unknown hand.[9]Cassiodorus mentions sixteen books of Columella, which has led to the suggestion that De arboribus formed part of a work in four volumes.[8]

Bradley, Richard A Survey of the Ancient Husbandry and Gardening collected from Cato, Varro, Columella, Virgil, and others, the most eminent writers among the Greeks & Romans: wherein many of the most difficult passages in those authors are explain'd ... Adorn'd with cuts, etc. London: B. Motte, 1725

^Bradley, Richard (1725). A Survey of the Ancient Husbandry and Gardening collected from Cato, Varro, Columella, Virgil, and others, the most eminent writers among the Greeks & Romans: wherein many of the most difficult passages in those authors are explain'd ... Adorn'd with cuts, etc. London: B. Motte. p. 373.